Herbal extracts, otherwise known as botanical medicines, are derived from naturally occurring herbaceous plants by extraction from the seeds, berries, stems, branches, leaves, bark, roots or flowers or other parts of the plants. Herbal extracts are well known for medicinal purposes dating back to ancient Chinese and Egyptian writings. Herbaceous plants also constitute a source for development of modern pharmaceutical medicines and herbal extract(s) ranging from the development in the late 1800's of aspirin, a derivative of the silver willow bark, to the development in the 1980's of paclitaxel, a terpene derivative of the yew bush. When used as medicinals, herbal extracts can provide numerous benefits and can be used, for example, to treat pain, cancer, muscle spasm, depression, viral and bacterial infection, nausea, cardiovascular problems, lung problems, joint and osteoporosis problems, blood clots and other physiological problems.
Herbal extracts traditionally are administered by oral, topical, inhalation and/or injection methods. Inhalation of vaporized herbal extracts is a common form of administration. However, the traditional methods do not control dose or timing of the delivery. Moreover, traditional methods do not utilize purified extracts so that the herbal extracts typically contain plant side products, carcinogenic substances and other deleterious plant substances. Furthermore, in some circumstances, the vapors of the medicinal herb plant material are inhaled by burning the plant material, in other words by smoking. The combustion of the plant material can also release many toxic substances such as ammonia and hydrogen cyanide that can cause tissue damage if ingested. Ingestion of foods laced with herbal extracts material can also deliver herbal extract(s) to the body. However, undesirable materials in the herbal extracts are also ingested and the dosages of the ingested herbal extract(s) can be inconsistent and hard to determine.
Isolation and purification of herbal extract(s) from herbaceous plants can be of great interest and benefit to the medical community. A way to purify herbal extract(s) from herbaceous plants and convert the purified forms into an easily-ingestible form and/or to administer such purified forms or derivatives thereof is desired.